May
13
2007
Udon
Posted by luna6 2 Comments
Movie : Udon
Year : 2006
Country : Japan
Director : Katsuyuki Motohiro
Starring : Yusuke Santamaria (Kosuke), Manami Konishi (Kyoko)
Run Time : 134 Minutes
Editor Rating : 6.0
Users Rating: 4.44 
(9 votes)
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Plot Synopsis : Kosuke returns to his small hometown of Sanuki after a failing to become a successful stand-up comedian in New York City. The town of Sanuki is situated in Kagawa Prefecture, the smallest prefecture in Japan. Although the population there is slightly less than 1 million, they still have over 900 udon restaurants -the highest percentage in all of Japan.
Kosuke’s workaholic father runs one of these udon restaurants in Sanuki. Wanting no part in the family’s udon business or having to deal with his estranged father, Kosuke quickly sets out to find another line of work. He eventually lands a job as a writer for a small local rmagazine called TJ Sanuki. Shortly afterwards, Kosuke recieves an epiphany of sorts when he realizes that there hasnt been many articles written about the udon restaurants in Sanuki. With the enthusiastic help of his colleagues, Kosuke sets out to find the best udon restaurants in Sanuki. His articles then becomes a smashing success and launches a nationwide craze for Sanuki Udon.
Movie Review : This is one movie where you should not watch on an empty stomach. I love the Japanese noodle dish known as Udon and because of this fondness, found myself constantly licking my lips during the many close up shots of the Udon dish. The movie itself is a feel good drama / comedy that deals with a fractured relationship between a father and son, but also includes fairly indepth scenes of the making of the Udon noodle dish, as well as touching on themes like the harmful effects large scale fads can sometimes have.
Katsuyuki Motohiro (Bayside Shakedown / Summer Time Machine Blues) the director of Udon, took great care in creating an authentic feel for the process of making Udon. The film was shot in real udon restaurants in Sanuki, Japan. It should be noted that the town of Sanuki in Kagawa Prefecture is widely regarded as the region that makes the best udon dishes. The area also has the highest percentage of udon restaurants in all of Japan. Furthermore, there was an actual Udon craze that hit Japan a few years back, which probably provided the impetus for Katsuyuki Motohiro to make a movie centered around udon restaurants. There is an almost documentary feel at times to Udon which did wonders for the first hour of Udon, but the second half of the film failed to provide the payoff that the first half’s interesting premise set for the film.
The movie’s plot really doesn’t become apparent until somewhere in the second half of the film. This would be centered around the fractured relationship between Kosuke and his father that runs a udon shop. While there has been a history of bad feelings between the father and son any type of tension was obscured by the characters hushed demeanor and sluggish pacing of the movie. While both actors gave respectable performances, I could never feel any genuine empathy for either characters. Furthermore, the romantic relationship between Kosuke and Kyoko felt as ho hum as the father and son relationship. Perhaps Udon was just to low-key for its own good.
Katsuyuki Motohiro probably was all too cognizant of the weak script and, as a result, often dished out various visual tricks to keep the audience hooked. Split screens were often used as montages to show the exploding popularity of the Udon craze. There were also dream sequences that varied from low key surprises (Kosuke dreaming about his father) to riveting ultra-high tech film within a film scenes (Captain Udon). Although, those moments were interesting in of itself, the scenes failed to have any lasting effect on the lackluster script. Katsuyuki Motohiro also made good use of cameo appearances to liven up the film in spurts. Somewhere around the 55 minute mark, you may notice a cute teenage couple in a Udon restaurant that were referred to as novices. The girl would be none other than Ema Fujisawa from Love Com. Also, the three geeky guys from Summer Time Machine Blues appears in Udon as patrons of the bookstore that starts to sell the TJ Sanuki magazine.
Make no doubt about it, the true star of Udon would be the oh so savory Udon noodle dish. If this was an hour long tv show on the Food Channel, Udon would be smashing success. Unfortunately for a full length movie, that was already bloated by its 134 minute runtime, the lackluster script watered down the very palatable flavor of Udon. While Udon isn’t a “bad” film, the potential was there for something truly memorable. Slurp, Slurp anyways.
If you like this movie you may enjoy : Hula Girls, Granny Gabai
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2006 Movie Reviews, Japanese Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Comments
2 Comments so far
Hmm. Good review. I think I had a far more averse reaction to the film than you, but our opinions are still in line. I wasn’t aware of the Udon craze in Japan. That makes a bit more sense, but I don’t think it was executed all that well in the film. Too bad. This could have been great.
udon should have been called “poo’d on”. that’s how i felt after watching this crap.
i recommend Juzo Itami’s ramen noodle film “Tampopo” instead!